Thunder Road Raceway kicks off new era of drag racing

The start of a new racing era began in Gilliam Wednesday and the Thunder Road Raceway is bringing national attention to the ArkLaTex for it.

Professional drag racer Nelson Hoyos is the new owner of Thunder Road Raceway and believes they have a found a hidden gem.

"It has some great, great history," he said."We hope now that the new Thunder Road is under our management and ownership will actually allow us to bring super high-caliber racing programs here and also develop a national type of racing facility for the community to be able to cherish."

"It has the potential to bring in probably 50,000 people," said veteran drag racer Scott Campbell. "It's a great quarter-mile facility. It's going to take word of mouth and the support of the community."

Thunder Road also helps the community by taking kids who drag race off the streets and onto to the track.

Jose Zeda owns Jose's Rotary, a business in Haughton. He thinks that a controlled environment for racing can save lives.

"We are trying to keep the kids, the young generation, from racing on the street and come to the track," he said. "When you think of the track if you have an accident we are able to help you, if you have an accident on the street nobody's going to help you."

This weekend will be Thunder Road's first annual top gun shootout and it will be televised nationally by ESPN 2.

"We have kidscape, car shows, and auto cross competitions," Hoyos said. "We have a lot of different things that we are doing so that we can show the world that Louisiana is the place to come for all of these competitions and Thunder Road is the place to be.